Hwaet!

Manuscript CXVII is certainly the most famous book of Vercelli. From all over the world, every year, scholars and researchers contact the Capitulary Library to discover the secrets of this manuscript. We have made it the protagonist of a game, to download on cell phones and tablets.

The Vercelli Book was created at the end of the 10th century. So many enigmas surrounding it: who wrote it, how did it arrive in Vercelli, why does it have runes? The answers to these questions are numerous, maybe none is correct. But on some of the "stories" of the Vercelli Book the Foundation has created "Hwaet! The Vercelli Book Saga": the Museum's first video game.

The idea was developed by the Foundation together with the Institute for Educational Technologies of the CNR of Palermo and Bepart, a company specialized in augmented reality. The team has created a game capable of broadcasting culture. To get excited about history and get in touch with the past, understanding it through virtual adventure.

Between history, legend and virtual reality, the game is based on real knowledge and freedom of interpretation. Parallel universes linked to common heritage and the digital world. 

The designs are unpublished. All the environments have been imagined harmonizing historical knowledge and playability needs.

Eve is the nun who accompanies the player and becomes her/his virtual soul. Curious, courageous and intelligent, she is the one who follows and pursues the story. 

 Eve meets different characters and from each of them she collects useful information for her journey. Someone tell her the past, others suggest her the next steps, many are mediators of the enigmas. 

All the characters in the game are freely inspired by men and women of the past, quoted from sources and studies, imagined in their real appearance. 

Among the characters, some reveal themselves as reflections of an even more ancient past and lead the player to even more distant worlds. 

As in the best adventure games, it is the player who decides with what characters to interact. Will you be able to make it to the end of this wonderful journey through history?